The present invention relates to a gas-fired gun having a chamber for receiving a gas-filled cartridge. Particularly, the present invention relates to a gas-fired hand-gun having a chamber within its handgrip for receiving a gas containing cartridge and to a gas cartridge loading and extraction assembly therefor.
Various types of gas-fired guns, for example gas-fired rifles, have been proposed and constructed in the past. An example of a gas-fired rifle having a chamber for receiving a gas-filled cartridge which serves as the source of energy for firing a pellet from the rifle is described and illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 3,999,534 of common assignee herewith. In the gas-operated rifle disclosed in that patent, a shaft carrying a concave head at one end is engageable with the bulbous end of a gas cartridge disposable into a cartridge receiving chamber carried by the rifle. By operation of a lever and a camming action when loading a gas cartridge into the rifle chamber, the head axially displaces the cartridge such that the opposite cap seal end of the cartridge is pierced by a piercing mechanism to permit gas flow into the rifle. Upon reverse movement of the lever, the shaft is spring-biased away from the piercing mechanism. This enables the cartridge to be extracted from the rifle chamber.
While this has served as a very useful mechanism for loading and extracting gas cartridges from a gas-operated rifle, different problems are involved in providing a loading and extraction assembly for gas cartridges for use in connection with gas-fired handguns. For example, the limited size of the handgun in comparison with a gas-operated rifle imposes constraints upon the location and orientation of the chamber receiving the gas cartridge as well as upon the mechanism of the gas cartridge loading and extraction assembly therefor. Also, the gas cartridge loading and extraction assembly for a gas-fired handgun must be such as to correspond to the configuration and appearance of handguns in general so as not to provide an appearance unusual for handguns.